He's essentiallya failsafe that shows up and forces you to reload if you turn against the shadow thieves prematurely and risk cutting yourself off from the story so you can't advance the game.
He and his band can also be seen fighting off the vampires.
Nothing can stop that beast. Even if you Ctrl-Q him into your party, he will still kill ya. "He cannot be caged. He cannot be controlled. Understand this as you die, ever pathetic, ever fools!"
Playing as evil is really hard in BG2EE lol pretty sure i locked myself out of the tower dungeon with "the one" but killing the golems lol man going to test a few more things then i guess be forced to play as Good until I can figure out what I can and can't do!
That fight on top of that first tower was a doozey 2 of them spammed time stop barely won i thought the purple hammers would be worth it lol but they sucked such a waste!
Arkanis Gath is impossible to kill -- I think the idea was that he'd kill your party and force a reload from before you broke the game.
He *can* in fact be killed. First, you need to survive his insta-kill hits - he wields a +3 sword with that effect, so anything that makes you immune to +3 weapons will stop it. Death Ward will also do the trick.
Then you need to bypass his immunities. Arkanis Gath cannot be killed by damage, ever; but that's not the only way to kill things (and I mean *kill*, not imprison or anything). The other ways are stat- or level-drain. So either equip a weapon with that effect (Kachiko's Wakizashi, for example, drains WIS), or use a spell that grants you the ability (e.g. Shapechange->Mindflayer). Once either Arkanis' level or one of his stats reaches 0 he *will* die! At least that's how it worked in the original BG2 - I don't know whether the EE changed it.
Rest assured, though: despite being so hard to kill, there is very little reward for actually doing so. Arkanis drops no special gear and is worth only a handful of XP. He also doesn't tend to follow you through doors and such, so simply running away will get rid of him eventually.
It's not easy to kill him but there are quite good tricks to do.
Problem is you have small window of time and THAC0 also matters a lot having good rolls to destroy him fast without much loss. He will attack your party members first so you also need to remove them or hide them from his line of sight.
I have managed to kill him but its little frustrating to do it in one shot.
I will most certainly make a video of it for BG2:EE soon.
Took interest in killing the Bloodscalp and stumbled upon this Arkanis Gath. I used @Lord_Tansheron strategy with Haer'Dalis and his swords but wasn't successful. After looking at his .cre file and actually checking in game by forcing recruitment, I saw that Arkanis was immune to ability (and level) drain thanks to a special ring. He benefits from various immunities to instantaneous deaths and even to imprisonment. As he cannot be killed by damage either, I think there's no other solution than to flee when he appears. Also, if you kill Renal, the whole Shadow Thieves faction turns hostile.
Being immune to ability drain doesn't make you immune to getting your brain sucked out by an illithid. At least if Hexxat is anything to go by. I think ability drain from Illithids is classified differently from standard ability drain.
I remember doing this back in regular BG2. I used Limited Wish for the temporary Shapechange ability, put on an Improved Mantle, and sucked out Arkanis Gath's brain. Arin Linvale was next and revenge was sweet. Unless if they changed how ability drain/INT drain via illithids works, I'm pretty sure it'll work in BG2EE.
Even Ctrl+Q doesn't save you, even in the party he will still keep attacking everyone in the party, i ponder if i dismiss through Console the main char and make him the main char, if that would make him kill himself.
Ive tryed to Hit Arkanis several times as a Mind Flayer in BG2:EE. Looks like hes brains cant be swallowed at all. More than 15 hits and hes still alive and "near death".
I tryed all other kinds of stat-drain, and nothing work.
I used Time Stop + Improved Haste and it worked for me.
Go on--I know it wasn't from regular combat damage and he's immune to all instant kill effects of which I'm aware. If we've missed something, it needs to be fixed since it's the same item that keeps other necessary creatures alive.
All of the old exploits (level drain, ability drains) were closed a long time ago by BG2FP and were ported to EE.
I'm sure he is immune to a lot of negative status effects. Maybe you can power word blind him (lower MR first if applicable) and render him harmless. I would call that a "tactical victory" since you are not fleeing from a foe.
I used Time Stop + Improved Haste and it worked for me.
Go on--I know it wasn't from regular combat damage and he's immune to all instant kill effects of which I'm aware. If we've missed something, it needs to be fixed since it's the same item that keeps other necessary creatures alive.
All of the old exploits (level drain, ability drains) were closed a long time ago by BG2FP and were ported to EE.
So it's probably a left-over in my memory, since I played vanilla BG2 a lot (silly me).
hrm....Arkanis is definitely vulnerable to blindness, which could prevent his scripts from working normally. He is also vulnerable to Drop Weapons in Panic (264), which could cause him to drop his sword and thus ending his ability to kill targets instantly. He is vulnerable to Intoxication, presuming you had a way to get him drunk; an intoxication level of 100 would give him 12 points of negative luck, severely impacting his ability to hit targets. He is vulnerable to Wing Buffet so you could push him into a corner before running away. He is vulnerable to Time Stop, giving you a round or two in which to figure out what to do. He is vulnerable to Teleport Field, which could be to your benefit. He is vulnerable to Movement Rate Modifier (126 and 176) so Entangle could hold him in place and Grease will slow him down.
As far as defense...well, Sanctuary will make him ignore you (if you are cleric who cast it). As noted, Death Ward will protect you from his sword, as will Protection from Magic Weapons or Improved Mantle or Absolute Immunity (but those durations are very short). Note: Invisible Stalkers are already immune to his sword's killing effect, as are Planetars, Devas, and summoned Skeleton Warriors.
Even if you manage to get around the sword you still cannot kill Arkanis via direct damage. At best, you can get away from him without anyone dying but you will never kill him using items or spells available in the game. Right now, the only way to kill him would be to mod some spell designed specifically to take advantage of one of the vulnerabilities I listed above or remove his ring.
Personally, I don't like that kind of situation--there shouldn't be a method of *forcing* you to do something or killing your character if you attack the wrong person at the wrong time. Of course, I have never been a fan of being forced to choose Shadow Thieves or Valen's Mistress since there other options which realistically could help--the main three churches or the Order of the Radiant Heart, for example. That being said, there shouldn't be a lot of things so I don't sweat the small stuff and still enjoy the game for what it is.
tenkakahn
Member Posts: 110
Comments
"He cannot be caged. He cannot be controlled. Understand this as you die, ever pathetic, ever fools!"
Then you need to bypass his immunities. Arkanis Gath cannot be killed by damage, ever; but that's not the only way to kill things (and I mean *kill*, not imprison or anything). The other ways are stat- or level-drain. So either equip a weapon with that effect (Kachiko's Wakizashi, for example, drains WIS), or use a spell that grants you the ability (e.g. Shapechange->Mindflayer). Once either Arkanis' level or one of his stats reaches 0 he *will* die! At least that's how it worked in the original BG2 - I don't know whether the EE changed it.
Rest assured, though: despite being so hard to kill, there is very little reward for actually doing so. Arkanis drops no special gear and is worth only a handful of XP. He also doesn't tend to follow you through doors and such, so simply running away will get rid of him eventually.
As for the reason why you want to kill him.
He's a jerk!
Seriously...
You can liberate a pair of boots of speed from Renal BloodCap. Very handy. Now you can acquire all 6 boots in ToB.
Problem is you have small window of time and THAC0 also matters a lot having good rolls to destroy him fast without much loss. He will attack your party members first so you also need to remove them or hide them from his line of sight.
I have managed to kill him but its little frustrating to do it in one shot.
I will most certainly make a video of it for BG2:EE soon.
After looking at his .cre file and actually checking in game by forcing recruitment, I saw that Arkanis was immune to ability (and level) drain thanks to a special ring.
He benefits from various immunities to instantaneous deaths and even to imprisonment.
As he cannot be killed by damage either, I think there's no other solution than to flee when he appears.
Also, if you kill Renal, the whole Shadow Thieves faction turns hostile.
I remember doing this back in regular BG2. I used Limited Wish for the temporary Shapechange ability, put on an Improved Mantle, and sucked out Arkanis Gath's brain. Arin Linvale was next and revenge was sweet. Unless if they changed how ability drain/INT drain via illithids works, I'm pretty sure it'll work in BG2EE.
I tryed all other kinds of stat-drain, and nothing work.
Did anyone kill him at EE?
It seems impossible!
All of the old exploits (level drain, ability drains) were closed a long time ago by BG2FP and were ported to EE.
As far as defense...well, Sanctuary will make him ignore you (if you are cleric who cast it). As noted, Death Ward will protect you from his sword, as will Protection from Magic Weapons or Improved Mantle or Absolute Immunity (but those durations are very short). Note: Invisible Stalkers are already immune to his sword's killing effect, as are Planetars, Devas, and summoned Skeleton Warriors.
Even if you manage to get around the sword you still cannot kill Arkanis via direct damage. At best, you can get away from him without anyone dying but you will never kill him using items or spells available in the game. Right now, the only way to kill him would be to mod some spell designed specifically to take advantage of one of the vulnerabilities I listed above or remove his ring.
Personally, I don't like that kind of situation--there shouldn't be a method of *forcing* you to do something or killing your character if you attack the wrong person at the wrong time. Of course, I have never been a fan of being forced to choose Shadow Thieves or Valen's Mistress since there other options which realistically could help--the main three churches or the Order of the Radiant Heart, for example. That being said, there shouldn't be a lot of things so I don't sweat the small stuff and still enjoy the game for what it is.